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The idea of "Ex Corde Ecclesiae" and
Research of Vietnamese Folk Culture
Rev Joseph Vu Kim Chinh, SJ
Professor of Fujen Catholic University, Taiwan
I. Introduction
As Vietnamese Catholics, we are
concerned with research of the identity of Vietnamese culture. Facing
the present situation we must admit that it is a difficult task, because
there is no Catholic University in Vietnam. On the other hand, there are
many scholars working in different universities inside and outside of
Vietnam and all over the world. What is the guideline for our concern
and research of Vietnamese culture-identity? In this paper we intend to
explore the apostolic constitution "Ex Corde Ecclesiea" issued by Pope
John Paul II in 1990 as the basis which helps us Christians to orient
ourselves, to dialogue and to cooperate with those who are trying to do
research of Vietnamese culture.
What is Vietnamese culture? This
question leads us on the one hand to identify the place of Vietnam
related to its cultural backgrounds, and on the other hand to limit the
range of discussion to present day researches. Normally foreign scholars
classified Vietnamese folk culture under "Indochina". This folk culture
belongs to and is situated between two big traditional and significant
classical cultures: India and China. In the summary of the "L'Ecole
Francaise d'Extreme Orient depuis sur origine jusqu'en 1920" we find
this statement: "Not like China and India, which exist as particular
folk and proper culture and are worthy to be investigated..., it seems
that Indochina is only a mixture of different cultures and folks, which
do not have roots nor a center in themselves". On the other hand, the
French scholar G. Coedes, 20 years after the publication of this summary
recognized in the same Research Center that threr is a common cultural
good of South East Asia. His book "Les Peuples de la Peninsule
Indochinoise" reconfirmed once this point of view. Furthermore, at the
beginning of the 80's UNESCO established an organization "The Advisory
Committee for the Study of South East Asian Cultures" to explore the
cultures of this area. This divergency of classification shows that
there is a lot of scientific research to be done. It is true that there
is a common matrix of cultures for China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.
Therefore we respect and esteem many scholars who try to trace the
common cultural roots of these countries, although such a search might
give rise to the impression, that the later three are only satelite
cultures of China. Does the Vietnamese people have its own culture?
There would be different ways to explore it. We are interested here to
discover genuine Vietnamese folk culture which is expressed in different
ways by the people of today and which is strongly related to their life.
How can such an interest find orientation from the Apostolic
Constitution "Ex Corde Ecclesiae"?
II. The
apostolic constitution "Ex Corde Ecclesiae"
In August 1990 Pope John Paul II
issued the Apostolic Constitution "Ex Corde ecclesiae" as a
cristalization of the spirit of Vatican II about education. Although
Vatican II drew up the declaration on Christian Education "Gravissimum
Educationis" concerned with general guidelines for education, its spirit
and orientation are rooted in that magna charta of Vatican II, namely
the Pastoral Constitution "Gaudium et Spes". Concerning humanity it
speaks in terms of the common ground on which everybody exists and on
which everybody can share responsibility. The Church, according to the
Council, desires to establish a bridge with "all men of good will in
whose hearts grace works in an unseen way". This conviction rests on the
belief that the Spirit of the Lord is leading the world and individuals
through the "signs of time", signs which the people of God should
recognize as elements of God's presence and manifestations of His Will.
Thus, every person is called to become fully human, made in God's image.
In the Encyclical "Pacem in Terris" Pope John XXIII considered already
the important role of the "person" as the foundation for renewal and
sign for hope. The human person is created in God's image, but in the
process of history the person is likewise recognized as fallen and as
redeemed by Christ. Thanks to the salvation plan of God, the human
person once again regained its dignity, which is expressed in the
freedom of the mind, in search for truth and wisdom. Thus, the concept
of person is the central link between the doctrine concerning humanity
and the doctrine concerning God. It is in this context that the Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church "Lumen Gentium" of Vatican II expresses the
deep and wider dimensions for renewal of the Church, living in the same
world with our "neighbors", whoever they may be: other religious people
or atheist; a renewed church "gives closer attention to the modern life
and human society, special consideration is given to those questions and
problems which..., seem to have a greater urgency in our day". (Gs.n46.)
Among the most urgent matters of
our day, Vatican II pays special attention to "culture" and how to
develop it "properly". "It is one of the properties of the human person
that he or she can achieve true and full humanity only by means of
culture, that is through the cultivation of the goods and values of
nature" (GS. N53). Men and women are authors of culture. Human beings
enjoy the works and spiritual experiences transmitted through the ages.
Born in a given cultural heritage, he or she studies to discover its
foundations, so that they can improve their customs and institutions, in
order to increase the spiritual and moral maturity of mankind. "Culture
must evolve today in such a way that it will develop the whole human
person harmoniously and integrally, and will help all men to fulfill the
tasks to which they are called, especially Christians who are
fraternally united at the heart of the human family" (GS.n.56).
In the declaration "Gravissimum
Educationis" the Council emphasized the right education for everybody
and elaborated the providing of education on different levels of ages
and in various fields. This orientation is applied concretely in "The
Catholic School", issued by the Sacred Congregation for Catholic
Education, in 1977.
The publication of "Ex Corde
Ecclesiae" elaborates the idea of Vatican II both in the systematic as
well in an applied way. The document expresses a deep concern for the
identity and role of the Catholic University, present inside the church
and in the midst of society. The task of such university is not only to
promote a catholic intellectual life caring for integration of faith and
science, but also to try to widen its horizon by entering into dialogue
with every culture. "With every other university it (the Catholic
university) shares that gaudium de veritate, so precious to St.
Augustine, which is that joy of searching for discovering and
communicating truth in every field of knowledge". This concern is
realized through "aufheben" antithetical orders of reality in a more
profound and integral unity, i.e. the whole truth about nature, humanity
(human person) and God. "The logos, whose spirit of intelligence and
love enables the human person with his or her own intelligence to find
the ultimate reality of which he is the source and end and who alone is
capable of giving fully that wisdom which the future of the world would
be in danger". Here we can recognize again the esteem of the dignity of
the human mind, truth and wisdom which is presented in "Gaudium et Spes".
The human mind, as wisdom, reaches beyond the phenomena attaining the
profound and genuine reality which cannot be perceived by the senses.
That is the true meaning of both philosophy and theology. Engaging in
wisdom, the human person passes through visible realities to those which
are unseen. In this sense, every research is a possibility of
self-transcendence. In other words, in the light of "intellege ut credas;
crede ut intellegas" a Christian, working in a university or involved in
any research, enables the church "to institute an incomparably fertile
dialogue with people of every culture". With different angles (emphasis)
the idea of "person" occupies a special place in the thoughts of Pope
John Paul II, especially in the context of "search for meaning" in the
modern society, in different cultures. The Apostolic Constitution is
composed of two parts: Firstly, identity and mission of the Catholic
university, and secondly, general norms for its governance. What is said
here, I suppose would be understood at least as orientation for any
Catholic intellectual organization or even for researchers, both
individual and collective, because their activities are connected more
or less with the Catholic academic community. Thus, the name "Catholic
university" here in this Apostolic Constitution could be understood in a
larger sense. Its identity is defined as "an academic community which,
in a rigorous and critical fashion, assists in the protection and
advancement of human dignity and of a cultural heritage through
research, teaching and various services offered to the local, national
and inter-national communities. Its task is enclosed in the following:
(a) search for an integration of
knowledge
(b) a dialogue between faith and
reason
(c) an ethical concern
(d) a theological perspective
Among the assignments, dialogue
with its own culture is an urgent mission of an academic community. With
its own rich religious culture, a Catholic university is ready to share
and at the same time to learn from any culture. In appreciating diverse
cultures, a Catholic researcher tries to know them accurately, with both
positive and negative aspects, to integrate them into a fuller vision of
truth and to make faith better understood in a particular culture. In
other words, a Catholic university promotes positive aspects of culture
which help the human person to discover the meaning of life, to assert
human dignity and enable access to the transcendent. In short: "the
Christian researcher should demonstrate the way in which human
intelligence is enriched by the higher truth that comes from the
Gospel".
While most scholars received the
first part of "Ex Corde Ecclesiae" sympathetically and gratefully, they
met the second part with difficulties. Degree of obstacles depend on the
situation encountered in different political and cultural systems
throughout the world. In the present context of Vietnam, the most
relevant question for us seems to be: how can the idea of "Ex Corde
Ecclesiae" serve as an orientation for research on Vietnamese culture in
general, and as in this paper, for folk culture in particular?
III. Research
on Vietnamese Folk Culture
Folklore means folk learning: it
comprehends all knowledge that is transmitted by word of mouth and all
crafts and techniques that are learned by imitation or example, as well
as the products of those crafts. In primitive, non-literate societies
folklore is virtually identified with culture as such. In literate
societies folklore is a section of culture. This part of culture could
be a lower underlying phenomenon, where daily life of a folk is
controlled and subdued by a dictating power. It is, however, not
destroyed, but wrestles for survival and waits for its opportune time
for active flourishing. There is a passive resistance of Vietnamese
folklore, living in folk culture both through non-written and written
ways, during the foreign domination or local dictatorship. Folk culture
includes folk art, folk crafts and folk tools which are very important
for the reconstruction of folk culture, when this is no longer directly
reachable. Such are the precious artifacts discovered by French
archaeologists in the 1930-1950s in Vietnam. Folklore is carried on
effectively by verbal transmission, i.e, folk tales, legends, myths,
proverbs, riddles, poetry rooted in the wisdom of a folk, orally
transmitted and becoming a popular treasure for future generations. This
is a very significant treasure for Vietnamese culture because Vietnam
acquired very lately its script in a simple and easily accessible way.
Of course, there is often also the case of folklore and erudite
documents intermingling and supplementing with each other, in order to
express the spirit of a folk in its own special way. Folklore is
culminated in a living way, expressed as custom, belief, custom,
recipes, music, dance and games. These are the most evident phenomena of
folk culture, through which it manifests its underlying source of life.
In short, in order to know folk culture, it is necessary to come in
contact, directly or indirectly, with its data. Then it is necessary to
find out its common codes so that a sound reconstruction can be made.
The words of Claude Levi-Strauss may help us in approaching a folk
culture: "Contra the theoretician, the observer should always have the
last word, and against the observe, the native. Finally, behind the
rationalized interpretations of the native?one [must] look for the
'unconscious categories' which? are determinants 'in magic, as in
religion, as in linguistics'".
1. Present
state of the research of Vietnamese folk culture:
In order to know the present
situation of research about folk culture in Vietnam, it is helpful to
know who they are, and what they did. Then looking closely at the
phenomenon of "Phu Dong Thien Vuong" or "Thanh Dong", we will analyze
how the folk tale is living in the annual ceremony of the feast and how
scholars interpret it.
a) About Researchers of Folk
Culture in Vietnam
In the book "Researchers of Folk
Culture" Nguyen Xuan Kinh worked with his team of six scholars to
collect autobiographies of researchers in Vietnam and to estimate their
works and their influences. As they say in the introduction: "to edit a
list of those who dedicate their efforts to study folk culture, to
evaluate their contribution of both successful and unsuccessful
experiences which may serve as a forerunner preparing the way for those
who look for truthfulness in this matter". The first part of the book
elaborates carefully fourteen well-known scholars of folk culture in
Vietnam. Beside their political activity in the communist party, their
dedication to research, and their expertise is also well recorded. At
the end of the presentation of each author, there is a list of his
books, followed by a second list of books which he wrote with other,
concluded with articles published in periodicals. Looking at them, we
recognize that all are members of the Vietnamese Communist Party or
received a mission given by the party. That already indicates the
orientation of their works. Most of them are theoreticians, engaged
however in research of different fields of folklore. For example:
folktales (Nguyen Dong Chi); "Cheo" (folktheatre) (Ha Van Cau); puppetry
(Nguyen Huy Hong); folk ethnic minorities (Vu Quang Nhon)... The time
span of their collection of researches is limited, from 1945 until now.
In the second part they collect a list of another one hundred fourteen
scholars who teach in different universities the subject of folk culture
of direct certain research centers in local provinces, with a short
biography and a list of publication. Most of them are rather young
people; included in the list are also a number of women who are
interested in feminist subjects. Full of plan, they engage in
discovering folk culture in their surrounding life. Their works are
colored through geographical, racial specialty overall in Vietnam and
through a creative variety of topics (feast, folk tale, riddles,
myths...).
The list of hundred twenty eight
authors is far from being a complete list, as Nguyen Xuan Kinh and his
acknowledge. For scholars who belonged to the ancient regime or to the
former South Vietnam, are forgotten or only mentioned superficially or
removed out of folk culture (like Cu Sau, Huynh Tinh Cua, Nguyen Van
Ngoc, Pham Van Quynh, Toan Anh, Dinh Van Trung...). It would be
surprising for them too, when they could discover a new phenomenal of
researching folklore outside of Vietnam, since you find Vietnamese
scattered all over the world. The study of folk culture appears as a
hopeful sign, not only because there is such a great number of
researchers, and rich diversity of research topics, but they have also
certain institutions established in different provinces in Vietnam.
Besides, the researchers in Vietnam see the need to open up to related
sciences and to contacts with researchers from outside of Vietnam. This
will be more urgent, especially when Vietnam becomes a member of Asian
organizations. After this global view, it would be interesting to
look-by way of some examples-into the results of researches.
(b) "The Treasure of Vietnamese
Folk Poetry"
Vietnamese language with its
peculiarities plays a special role in folk culture. According to
semantics, language is composed of three elements: sign, rules and
performance. Signs are script or vocal expressions. The first forms of
writing seem to have been Chinese characters which came to Vietnam with
the Trieu dynasty (202-111 B.C). The Chinese characters were hard to
learn and would be accessible only to a few learned people. As a
consequence, Vietnamese language, before using Latin letters for
writing, was practically for a long time, for most of the population
only the oral language. That is the reason why folklores, especially
folk poetry play a very important role in the life of people.
Nevertheless, we are still surprised to find an enormous collection of
four volumes with 2,779 pages, arranged in alphabetical order both for
poem, as well as for topics. The research team acknowledges that there
are a lot of collected and selected works which have been published
before and which they use as reference, analyzing them, comparing them
so that a scientific valuation of folk poetry could be made. There are
thirty seven such works, making up forty six volumes, included are also
many articles dating from the end of the eighteenth century until 1975,
with 11,825 verses. It is worthy to note that the contents of folk
poetry present not only the verses, but also their changed words
according to different editions.
For examples:
Ai oi! cho voi cuoi nhau
Ngam minh cho to, truoc sau se cuoi (in: Nam am su loai II.42b)
Other versions:
Ngam minh cho to, truoc sau
hay cuoi (Thi ca binh dan, Vietnam, tap I.697; Tuc Ngu Phong Dao I.16)
Gam minh cho ky, truoc sau hay
cuoi (Tuc Ngu Phong Dao tap I; Hop Tuyen The Van Vietnam 226)
Gam minh cho tron, mai sau hay
cuoi (Dai Nam Quoc Tuy, 100a)
Ngam minh cho to, truoc sau se
cuoi (Huong Hoa Dat Nuoc 259).
As we see, changed words are
modified according to Vietnamese dialects (local speech) or by refined
moral teaching. They become really a treasure of Vietnamese folk
culture. In the second part of the fourth volume, the authors collected
up different commentaries of scholars, with different historical
backgrounds. For example, P. 2577-2625, also nearly 50 pages deal with
the poem "Thang Bom co cai quat mo", it is a well-known popular ironical
dialogue and bargain between a poor young man and a rich owner. Ten
comments are presented, as discussion, analysis, or simple expression of
feelings. The writers are well known, among them : Tran Thanh Mai, Ngo
Quan Niem, Tran Duc Thao, Vu Quoc Thuc... Alongside with such enormous
works, we can find also studies of smaller size, like: "Folktales of
Professions", "Old Town Hoi An", "Quan Thanh of old time and today"...
Smaller size, however, does not mean lower significance.
2. Analysis of the
Folktale "Phu Dong Thien Vuong" or "Thanh Dong"
Phu Dong Thien Vuong or Thanh Dong
(The Holy of the village Dong) is chosen to be as an excellent example
of study, because this folktale is one of the most popular stories; it
connects not only with Vietnamese historical development, but also with
the annual festival ceremony of some places. Besides, this tale was
registered as the ninth of twenty two of stories collected in the Linh
Nam Chich Quai; thus, the tale was not only transmitted orally through
generations like most other folktales, but became one of the written
document in the fourteenth century. According to this document, the tale
has its historical roots back with the third King of Hung Vuong Dynasty.
Thach Phuong and Le Trung Vu
collected sixty significant feasts, celebrated every year in different
parts of Vietnam. Besides there are also eighteen feasts of minority
folk. Phu Dong Thien Vuong, one of these feasts, is called "Annual
Memorial Services for the Knight of Heaven". In the appendix (II) there
is a summary translation: a short narrative, main topics and activities
of celebration in Dong- village, but also in its neighborhood in the
vicinity of Ha Noi and Ha-Tay. The celebration has a preparation in Soc
Son, Bo Dau. In Dong village itself the preparation begins one month
before, like registration, exercise.... the main celebration begins with
April 6 and reaches the peak on the 9th, its closing ceremony lasts from
10th to 12th April. In such a solemnity one can see the harmonious
fusion between village and nation, between past and present, expressed
in powerful symbols, games, dances and transmitted through generations.
G. Dumoutier described his strong impression, when he attended the feast
of "The Divine Knight of Village Dong" in the year 1893; he reported the
event with astonished impression that the feast changes totally the
behavior of the peasants: in daily life thy are afraid, and here they
become self assured as if the religious feast transformed them.
The oldest text of this story is
found in the book of Linh Nam Chich Quai, as we mention above, written
by Tran The Phap, reconstructed by Vu Quynh under the name "Dong Thien
Vuong". Nguyen Dang Truc in his book "Van hien, Nen tang cua minh
Triet", approaches the story with an analysis of its literary-form: to
find out the importance in the context, the redaction of the story
itself, and the interpretation of its content according to the trilogy:
Heaven, Human Being and Earth. In the story, King Hung Vuong III and
with him the prosperous and peaceful kingdom Van Lang were threatened by
the An Dynasty. Confronted with such a dangerous war, they built an
altar and prayed sincerely for three days. Heaven answered their prayer
by sending, first, Long Quan to predict how to protect the kingdom and
then, Phu Dong Thien Vuong who helped Van Lang to dissolve the invasion
of An Dynasty and restore peace in the Kingdom. Nguyen Dang Truc finds
the meaning of the folktale in relation to the dimension of Heaven, and
he concludes: "Open up to heaven means to accept the ultimate which is
not defined according to human thought... Human words like Absolute, Lac
Long source, which left behind these signs like footsteps on the rock".
In short, the "gift" from heaven helps people to resolve conflicts and
to regain harmony between Heaven - Man - Earth.
Cao Huy Dinh, one of the most
significant Marxist folklores explorers, approaches the phenomenon in an
other way. Although he recognizes the support of a written document as a
objective literary proof , he studies the tale in marxist way. On the
one hand , he collects currently told stories with their variation in
North Vietnam and tries to arrange them into a systematic whole. On the
other hand, he tries to melt the historical development of the folktale
into the marxist world-view, which sees human history as a necessary
process going through class- struggle up to the triumph of the
prolitariat. He interprets the "Soul" of the people (or Nguyen Dang Truc
would call it "Big Memory") as "the power of the people who participate
to grow, to strenghthen the nation and to push imperialism towards
decline". Accordingly, he divided the history of folk culture into
different phases: the beginning and developing period, ancient period
(from 7 BC to 11 AD century), empire establishment (from 11 to
15century), empire decline (from 15 to 16 century) and after
August-Revolution(1945) period. In every period a special kind of
folklore dominates and guides the soul of the people. Concerning the
folktale "Thanh Dong" (the name given to Phu Dong Thien Vuong to get Him
down to the peasant, and it means the Holy (divine Hero) of the village
Dong, he interpretes Thanh Dong as a significant symbol of a hero who
fights against invasion of a foreign power. According to Cao Huy Dinh,
folktale Thanh Dong synthesizes three literature forms: fairytale,
historical tale and heroic hymn. He is convinced that the tale begins
with a story of the tribe and becomes a national hero, so that it can be
identified with the spirit of folk both on the local and national
levels.
IV. Reflection
about an Orientation for Research of Vietnamese Folk Culture
Following the tendency to study
folklore in a way promoted in former Soviet Union since 1936, the
Vietnamese Communist Party, like other communist countries, believed in
the effectiveness of folklore as a political weapon. In year 1943 the
Vietnamese Communist Party issued the document "Proposal for Vietnamese
Culture" (De Cuong Van Hoa Vietnam) which gives a guideline to find out
the relationship between culture, economic and political life. It
contains three principles: Nationalization, Popularization and
Scientification. Along the same orientation, Truong Chinh formed a
Marxist manifest on Vietnamese culture in July 1948 in the second
national conference on culture. He states: "Beside the erudite (learned)
culture transmitted through generations, there is a folk culture which
remained in proverbs, riddles, folk poetry, folk tales, folk art... This
culture expresses the struggle of workers, aspiration and a resilient
will of folk against superstition, bad custom, or in order to promote
good things. This is a very precious treasure to which our cultural
researchers, historians and archeologists should dedicate time and
effort to discover it". They identify such folk culture with national
power which is transmitted through generations and can be discovered and
complemented in Marxism which is declared as scientific direction. This
guideline has continued to be until the present in Vietnam the criterion
for discussion and the promotion of research.
In their research, these
specialists reversed earlier theories that regarded folklore as a
product of the upper classes filtering down to the lower classes, and
claimed that the working people were the creators of folklore. The
working method and process to discover and reconstruct Vietnamese folk
culture rely on the direction given by the Russian Marxist folklorist J.
V. Propp. V. Propp's main work "Morphology" which was written in the
year 1928, received little attention outside of Russia, until Roman
Jacobson translated it in to English 1958, Propp's "Morphology" is "the
description of the folktale according to its component parts and the
relationship of these components to each other and to the whole". Like
any other Marxist, Propp emphasizes the historical dimension which
combines these steps: source, transformation into tale and its
"actions", (or functions). To create his morphology, Propp first
distinguished between the "variables" and "invariables" of his system of
tales. While source and formation of folktales are variable according to
each folk and different epoches, actions or functions of tales are
invariable. Cao Huy Dinh applied this theory to his "Research for a
Development of Vietnamese Folk Culture" and "The Hero of Village Dong".
He tries to find out different tales transmitted orally around North
Vietnam triangle land and through the help of different anthropological
materials, he proposes a hypothesis that the source could be the
outstanding symbol in a tribe, which becomes a hero figure in the tale
and lastly becomes an historical figure for the whole folk tale. His
action is always along the line of rescuing the people from foreign
invasions. In short, Cao Huy Dinh analyses such significant tales, like
two Sisters Tam Cam, Trau Cau, The Lady To Thi, Cay Khe (Star fruit
tree). The Young Wife of Tu Xuong,... and finds out the progress of
tales which goes along with the development of Vietnamese folk history.
He combines the motive of each tale with the Marxist motive: social
struggle for international liberation of each nation.
It is interesting to note that the
method and thoughts of Propp are discussed first by Claude Levi-Strauss.
Levi-Strauss calls this approach "structural". He finds sympathy with
Propp's "Morphology" rather than with the Marxist view. "Propp pays
attention to the sequence organization of all elements in the narrative.
Levi-Strauss throws this requirement to the wind and transforms that
weakness into an apparent strength by making it central to the
methodology of structuralism". In short: instead of a formal
organization of sequence in a linear chronological ordering like Propp's
model, Levi-Strauss pleads for structural composition. His structural
anthropology is rooted on the most important premise: phenomenal
realities, including cultural artifacts, are always reducible to a
common infrastructure. The root for this universal collective and hidden
reality is called "the unconscious brain". This unconsciousness
manifests its power not through class-struggle, but rather in a "gift",
i.e. a way of integrating the opposition between self and other.
Therefore there are three principles of the unconscious:
The exigency of the rule as
a rule
2) The notion of reciprocity
regarded as the most immediate form of integrating the opposition
between the self and others
3) The synthetic nature of the
gift, i.e. that the agreed transfer of a valuable from one individual to
another makes these individuals into partners, and adds an new quality
to the value transferred.
The first principle serves as a
means of differentiation of the human mind: the second as a means of
reconciliation and the third as a means of unity. These three principles
account for the possibility of an ordered transition from social
conflict to partnership. On the one hand, it seems that Levi-Strauss
like Propp stresses the structural elements and their relation to each
other as a whole, but on the other hand, there is an evident difference
between them, that "linguistics furnishes a primary model for a general
anthropological theory".
Levi-Strauss distinguishes between
"language" and "parole" ("word") which are analogous with
unconsciousness and consciousness. Language like myth are the products
of the same unconscious structures, also they reveal qualitative
determinants and invariant structures: while parole is expressed in
understandable representation, also in a calculable way. Thus, a myth
consists of all its available variations which are emerging
diachronically in history in forms of "parole". Therefore, myth and
science are not different stages in the development of the human mind,
but rather two strategic levels at which nature is accessible to
scientific inquiry. Maybe it is accurate to say that myth is more tied
to sensible perception than science. On the other hand, symbolic
representation used in myth is not just expressing a relation between
man and the natural world, but manifesting the ultimate discontinuity of
nature. Such are arts, feast, games, rites... etc. In short: myth is,
according to Levi-Strauss, on a higher level either language or parole,
for it takes part in both.
Levi-Strauss use of Propp's method
and theory in a creative way may help us to approach the research of
Vietnamese scholars in Vietnam and cooperate with them in the
interpretation of the cultural treasures. The essential task which the
apostolic constitution "EX Corde Ecclesiae" expressed, is: "search for
an integration of knowledge" which serves as a ground for a fruitful
"dialog between faith and reason" and yields to an "ethical concern" and
leads to "theological reflection". Levi-Strauss structuralism gains from
dialogue with Propp's Marxist anthropology some fruit for human
integration: the hidden power of unconsciousness is manifested in human
history, not in "class-struggle" but rather as a "gift", a way of
integrating the tension between self and the other. Analyzing Vietnamese
history, a history written mostly under domination of foreign power and
wars, also in controversies and conflicts, we recognize that Vietnam
learned how to cooperate with powerful enemies in order to co-exist.
This wisdom turns out to be a precious gift for later generations.
Promoting integral knowledge means caring dialogue, especial with
opposite point-of-views, so that complete human knowledge is not a
result of arbitrary compromise, but a precious fruit of "Gaudium de
Veritate". The process of integral knowledge is pluralistic: it could be
a linear development or discovered on different levels which appears dia-chronologically
or synchronologically, or in a dialectical way. That is an amazing
co-existence between folklore and erudite culture, especially in
Vietnam. They both serve as means for caring ethical values in its own
way. Until now, Vietnamese philosophers and theologians try to elaborate
erudite culture to serve as a foundation for theological inculturation
in Vietnam, it is great and right. The point of view of folk culture can
, however, become-I think-an another, not less important means for
searching for a Vietnamese liberation theology which counts on the
people and builds up from folk wisdom.
Taiwan, 1997
Rev Vu Kim Chinh, Professor of Fujen Catholic University,
Taiwan
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